Mitigating Gas-Induced Performance Degradation in High Reliability Electronic and Optoelectronic Systems

Many electronic and optoelectronic systems used in High Reliability applications need to be hermetically or semi-hermetically packaged in order to protect the internal components from dust, moisture, or other detrimental gases, and to ensure stable performances during all the lifetime. One of the main problems of the packaged devices is related to the inner accumulation of undesired gases that can negatively affect system operation. In fact, gas generation and outgassing from the internal materials can induce an increase of moisture, H2, CO, CO2, O2, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) concentrations that may affect the functionality and reliability of the components. The use of an efficient getter is recommended to get rid of the harmful impurities that are always released in the systems, even after baking and degassing treatments. Getters may vary from thin getter films for vacuum sealed packages, to selective getters suitable to sorb hydrogen in H2 sensitive devices, to dispensable hybrid organic-inorganic materials for gas back-filled devices. Recently a new getter family, named Zedry, has been developed. The Zedry getters are able to sorb high amounts of H2O and exhibit also good sorption performances towards H2 and VOCs, ensuring the capability to capture all the dangerous contaminants in gas-filled modules. These getters – applied “as is” or integrated on the lids used to seal the devices – allow an effective removal of the gas impurities, guaranteeing a proper operation along the entire system lifetime.